Centre convenes meetings to discuss tiger deaths

With tiger deaths crossing the 50 mark this year, a worried government is convening a series of meetings with 17 tiger-range states to look into the reasons for the unabated deaths of the feline.

"The first meeting will be held tomorrow with directors from tiger reserves of Northern India such as Corbett, Dudhwa and Kaziranga," said a senior official from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) which is holding the meet on behalf of the Centre.

A tiger returns home after four months of treatment

He said meetings will be held with other directors of tiger reserves in Central and Southern India in a phased manner by October 6.

Though the government maintains that at least 52 tigers have died so far this year across the country, the NGOs estimate the toll to be 66 and have attributed the deaths to shrinking habitats, poaching and man-animal conflicts.

While the officials says the 15 deaths were due topoaching, the NGO Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) led by wildlife expert Belinda Wright puts the number at 23.

"Of 52 tiger deaths, 15 were due to poaching. Ten poaching cases took place outside protected areas (PAs) due to poisoning. This indicate that the PAs are still safe for the cats," the NTCA official said.

How many tigers do the Sundarbans have?

Though the NGOs and government may differ on the number of deaths, both agree that other big cats perished due to factors such as old age, territorial fights, tiger-human conflict, accidents and diseases.

Most of the fields in Sundarbans are presently fallow and there are remnants of saline-tolerant plants like chilly and also some wilting high-yielding paddy plants, attempts by desperate farmers to grow something in their lands.

Former students of state-government run Agriculture Training Centre at Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur and agriculture department officials too came forward and scoured and bought seeds of traditional paddy from fields and farms to help farmers.

Following the devastating cyclone, climate change and sea-level rise farmers too have felt the need for cultivating traditional varieties of paddy along with high-yielding ones.

"Cyclones have been happening frequently now. Theriver water goes higher to breach embankments regularly. We have to cultivate traditional paddy to save ourselves from starvation," Uttam Das, another farmer says.

Farmers of cyclone-hit deltas like Kakdwip, Pathar Pratima, Gosaba, Hingalganj have been cultivating traditional saline-tolerant paddy as a means to provide succour for future.